[Fwd: Mother's Antibody Production May Affect Fetal Brain]

[Guest guest]

Nice to know those 5 tubes of my blood were put to good use ...

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Autism's Origins: Mother's Antibody Production May Affect Fetal Brain

ScienceDaily (Feb. 25, 2008) & mdash;

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080225213444.htm

The mothers of some autistic children may have made antibodies

against their fetuses' brain tissue during pregnancy that crossed the

placenta and caused changes that led to autism, suggests research led

by s Hopkins Children's Center investigators and published in the

February issue of the Journal of Neuroimmunology.

The causes of autism, a disorder manifesting itself with a range of

brain problems and marked by impaired social interactions,

communication disorders and repetitive behaviors, remain unknown for

an estimated 90 percent of children diagnosed with it. Genetic,

metabolic and environmental factors have been implicated in various

studies of autism, a disorder affecting 1 in 150 U.S. children,

according to estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention.

" Now our research suggests that the mother's immune system may be yet

another factor or a trigger in those already predisposed, " says lead

investigator Harvey Singer, M.D., director of pediatric neurology at

Hopkins Children's.

Researchers caution that the findings needn't be cause for alarm, but

should be viewed instead as a step forward in untangling the complex

nature of autism.

Mostly anecdotal past evidence of immune system involvement has

emerged from unusual antibody levels in some autistic children and

from postmortem brain tissue studies showing immune abnormalities in

areas of the brain. Antibodies are proteins the body makes in

response to viruses and bacteria or sometimes mistakenly against its

own tissues. Yet, the majority of children with autism have no

clinical evidence of autoimmune diseases, which prompted researchers

to wonder whether the antibodies transferred from mother to child

during pregnancy could interfere with the fetal brain directly.

To test their hypothesis, the research team used a technique called

immunoblotting (or Western blot technology), in which antibodies

derived from blood samples are exposed to adult and fetal brain

tissue to check whether the antibodies recognize and react against

specific brain proteins.

Comparing the antibody-brain interaction in samples obtained from 100

mothers of autistic children and 100 mothers of children without

autism, researchers found either stronger reactivity or more areas of

reactivity between antibodies and brain proteins in about 40 percent

of the samples obtained from the mothers of autistic children.

Further, the presence of maternal antibodies was associated with

so-called developmental regression in children, increasingly immature

behaviors that are a hallmark of autism.

While the findings suggest an association between autism and the

presence of fetal brain antibodies, the investigators say further

studies are needed to confirm that particular antibodies do indeed

cross the placenta and cause damage to the fetal brain.

" The mere fact that a pregnant woman has antibodies against the fetal

brain doesn't mean she will have an autistic child, " Singer says.

" Autism is a complex condition and one that is likely caused by the

interplay of immune, genetic and environmental factors. "

Researchers are also studying the effect of maternal antibodies in

pregnant mice. Preliminary results show that the offspring of mice

injected with brain antibodies exhibit developmental and social

behaviors consistent with autism.

Senior author on the study: W. Zimmerman, M.D., of the Center

for Autism and Related Disorders at the Kennedy Krieger Institute.

Co-authors: and Colin Gause, both of Hopkins; Pam

Gillin of the Kennedy Krieger Institute; and Crawford, Ph.D.,

s Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The study was funded

by the Alliance for Autism Research.